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Have You Tried Stage Cafe?

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Stage Cafe

Okay, I admit that if looking for furniture, I don’t mind going to the Honolulu Design Center. Inspiration Furniture is there along with HDC’s secret weapon, Stage Cafe. Have you tried their goodies?

Their desserts are great, made at the Stage Restaurant. And of course, they serve coffee and espresso drinks. So while you’re not suposed to, you can shop around while sipping on a Triple Mocha. Good food and good drink makes shopping so much better!

Stressless Sunrise

In fact, shopping is so much better, you might even buy an unanticipated Stressless recliner since it includes a stand and a $300 discount on the Sunrise model.

To keep up with their daily specials, follow Stage Cafe on Twitter at @StageCafeHI. As an extra bonus, while sitting in the cafe area, you can people watch these older guys outside. They sit in the unused outside tables under the large umbrellas. They’re playing cards, smoking cigars but do patronize the Cafe by purchasing food and drinks.

Gotta love these guys

Alaskan Scavenger Hunt

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We posed the challenge once before, and it’s again time to set @abaggy off on a pictorial scavenger hunt. Can he find and snap pictures from the following list:

Alaskan Scavenger Hunt

    IMG_6417
    Crepuscular rays

  1. Dessert
  2. A scenic view
  3. Shipboard entertainment
  4. A towel sculpture
  5. Two different ethnicities of food
  6. A workout room
  7. “Wildlife” (could be interpreted many ways)
  8. Cold
  9. Gluttony

Bonus

  1. Crepuscular rays (aka God’s rays). See example on right.
  2. Mankini (could be his own)

I’ll make it easier by giving him an open interpretation of the items on the list. Can he complete his mission?

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Seals Love Starbucks?

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Who knew Hawaiian monk seals enjoy their Starbucks just as much as we do?

Monk seal and Starbucks

Actually, an overexcited (and unsupervised) youngster was trying to climb up to get a better view of the seal. In the process, his drink went over the railing. Fortunately, the aged seal didn’t really show an interest in the (empty) cup, and the staff workers were able to retrieve the cup without incident.

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Starbucks Opens at Disney

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Today marks the opening of Starbucks in Disney’s California Adventure Park. Don’t you need a cup like this?

You’ll have to head to the Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Cafe to get your Starbucks fix.

Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Café is the first location ever inside a Disney theme park where you can enjoy refreshing Starbucks coffee and espresso drinks — including flavored lattes, iced coffees and Frappuccino® blended beverages. The café also serves some of your favorite signature Starbucks breakfast sandwiches and pastries.

Can’t Roll Your Own Time Capsule

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Didn’t know this, but you can’t use an external USB drive connected to an Apple AirPort Extreme basestation for Time Machine backups. I thought you could on newer Extreme models, but no, you can’t on any Extreme model. I essentially wanted to roll my own Time Capsule by plugging a USB drive into my AirPort Extreme. I’ve shared a drive before and assumed the new firmware allowed network-based Time Machine backups.

Apple does not support this although it may work. This article is the most referenced source regarding this unsupported setup.

Taking Stock: MacBook Pro

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Next up, taking a look at my Late-2008 MacBook Pro to help figure out which Mac to get.

  • 15-in display running at 1440×900
  • 24-in external display running at 1920×1200
  • 320 GB internal drive, 68 GB used
  • 8 GB of RAM
  • SuperDrive
  • GigEthernet
  • MagSafe 1
  • MiniDisplay Port, connected to DVI adapter for external display
  • FW800, unused
  • USB2 (2 ports)
    1. Hub 1
    2. External USB hard drive

The latest MacBook Air can have a 13-in screen running at 1440×900 so only loss is in screen real estate. With a 256 GB SSD, I’d still have room to grow, especially if I want to throw a virtual machine or two on the Air.

The single Thunderbolt port would be used up by the Mini Display Port adapter to my external display. Both my current MBP and the Air has two USB ports. Since I’m not using my FW800 port, the lack of FW and a single Thunderbolt port on the Air isn’t a factor (or is it?).

If I want to run some Windows VMs on a limited basis, I’d want to bump up the processor to the dual i7 and the max out the RAM at 8 GB. I may need a USB SuperDrive just because burning discs is still a viable method.

Aw dang, now this could be a problem. I’d want a wired Ethernet connection, but the Air uses a Thunderbolt adapter for this. But the Air has a single Thunderbolt port which I’d use for the secondary monitor. Could I live off of Wifi? I’m happy with my external display and don’t really want a Thunderbolt Display just to break out additional ports.

Or there’s this fluctuating option – the Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock. The updated (and unreleased) version includes these ports:

  • 2x Thunderbolt (daisy-chaining supported)
  • 3x USB 3.0
  • 1x FireWire 800
  • 1x eSATA
  • 1x Gigabit Ethernet
  • 3.5mm audio in and out

But the cost of this well designed device is an eye-popping $399 and is not yet available (expected September 2012). There is another option, the Matrox DS1 Thunderbolt Docking Station. There are fewer ports, but it costs fewer dollars as well ($250).

  • 1x USB 3.0
  • 2x USB 2.0
  • 1x DVI
  • 1x GigEther
  • 3.5mm audio in and out

No extra Thunderbolt, no Firewire, no eSATA compared against Belkin’s product. Seems like one of these Thunderbolt-based docks/hubs would be needed to alleviate the paucity of ports. While the Belkin dock is cool, the Matrox product is good and cheap enough for me.

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