Nook me please!

Spending the weekend at my parents house has been a family tradition for the last few years. We would find any excuse to get together.  We have great food and we bring any new tech toys we may have to the house to get feedback from our siblings.

Nothing has made a big splash like the iPad2 when my sister brought hers along on a family gathering. The screen was big and bold, the body was slick and polished, just like one would expect from Apple. It felt firm and well built. After using it for a bit it was obvious that it was just like an oversize iPod touch.  Making it easy to navigate for any current or former iPod owner. The nostalgia wore out after a while, the oversize screen seemed to be more of a pain as holding it was uncomfortable and rather clumsy. In the end the iPad2 confirmed my suspicion that tablets are just a passing fad.

Fast forward to Christmas at my parents house last year. My younger sister received a Barnes and Nobles NOOK Color. It was just a e-reader, so it didn't create a big buzz and was just left on the dining room table. I walked right past it a few times before deciding to take a look at it and see what it had to offer me, mind you the iPad2 in my opinion was a bit of a letdown.

The Nook Color was crisp and light. The screen was smaller and seemed to be a bad thing at first but after looking at some magazine pages it was actually the perfect size, no empty white space. My sister was leaving in a few days to Costa Rica and mentioned she may trade it in for the Nook tablet. All of a sudden I found myself wanting more time with the Nook.

When my sister returned  we had, you guessed it another family gathering but this time the Nook was my main draw to my parents house. My sister had upgraded from the Color to the Tablet and the visual difference was negligible on the outside. The real difference was in the internal components. Making it even more appealing to me. Within a few minutes I found myself immersed in a tech article and I had mentally checked out of my parents house and into tech mode and I LOVED IT! I was so taken in to the article that I forgot I was holding a tablet and not an actual book.

I was so impressed that by the end of this week I hope to be a proud Nook owner!

My 2yr old watching youtube, something that her Acer Aspireone Netbook can't seem to do well.

Why I'm at MATC.

I decided to attend MATC a few years out of H.S. in 1999. I took a lot of regular courses without a real focus on any core courses. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I bought a 100Mhz computer form a friend for $100 and it was mostly only because he insisted that I buy it.  I would sit around and tinker with it and eventually began over clocking it. I got it around 133Mhz by the use of some toggle switches on the motherboard. It was very exciting for me to increase the speed and to see it post.


It was at that time that I decided to go into the IT field and I decided on Networking Specialist. Even though I had never really thought of what that really meant. I just wanted to work on computers. A few years later I got married and dropped out of school. I became a father and eventually a home owner. I would still dream of that IT degree I left behind.

Their was one thing that my Data Communications class taught me in 2001, to keep current by subscribing to magazines. I subscribed to Maximum PC for the past 11 years. I have kept up on technology and hardware as best I can. I would drool over new gadgets and be mesmerized by colored hand held devices at the store and in print. I would still tinker with electronics and really took to computers like a fish to water. I would work 8 hours a day and couldn’t wait to get home and play another 5 hours with electronics.


 Finally, In 2010 I was laid-off and found myself with a chance to return to MATC and finish my career. I spoke to my wife and we crunched some numbers and decided that we could make it work. Looking back, being laid-off has been a real blessing. If it weren’t for the lay-off I may still be contemplating going back to school to finish my degree, now the sky seems to be the limit and I’m even more excited about Networking than ever before.


ITRobelo