@scottalanmiller I'm running Mac OSX with the Server application installed.

For any first timers I can not stress enough, you will not out drink SAM. In the past I thought I could keep up, I was wrong, i have been carried home.

@johnhooks said:

Pardon my ignorance, what's the advantage to a Mac server?

Deploying in house Mac applications and using Mac MDM. I say "Server" but it is just a high end Mac Pro.

Well i'm sitting in a little tea shop in Arkansas right now waiting on the Apple crew across the street to work on my server. I was complaining about having to drive 70 miles, that kind of puts a different perspective on things.

If it is crashing that often you may have something else wrong. I haven't had mine crash in months, but I have a mac pro server that isn't waking up from sleep with out being unplugged for 10 seconds. It only happens about once every other week. Called Apple, they did a online log dump, couldn't find anything but kept putting pressure on them. They agreed to let me bring it into a Apple store for more diagnostics and have told me if they can't figure it out, they will replace it for free.

If I was you I would start keeping a log of system crashes for about a week, then call and start hounding on support because what you are experiencing is not normal. The plus side is Apple stands behind their hardware and their OS so as long as you are still under warrantee, they will cover both.

This is what I use. http://www.red-gate.com/

@creayt I have to ask what you are developing that needs 32GB of RAM.

Can someone "explain it like i'm 5" why you need this kind of power in a mobile workstation? It seems like complete overkill for me.

Wish I could join you guys this year. Drink a beer or dozen for me.

We have used Broadvox in the past. I would rate them a solid Meh....

My last system build I started with the cheapest board I could find, It ran OK for about a year, then the board died with a blown cap. I decided to splurge and go to a top shelf gigabyte board to swap everything over too. Same stats, just a better board. The system was noticeably more stable and a little quicker. Personally, I will never go with a cheap board again.

@creayt I keep hearing this claim from several people, but I just haven't seen it. Now, keep in mind I have never used Mac before my current system. However, I run Visual Studio on a Win7 VM, Xamarin in my Mac, have a Copy of Ubuntu 14 up at all times, and I have yet to see a single slow down. I'm not trying to call you out, but I am curious how long ago this was, and why I don't see it.

So far Prime Day has been closer to warehouse leftover garage sale. Nothing but dated junk.

You can sign up and give it a shot here. I think it is in public beta now.

https://beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/

@Dashrender said:

Early adapter? Bitcoin has been around at least 5 years if not more like 8. I setup a bitcoin mining machine back in year one and did buy a single bit coin and sense lost it (lost it 6+ years ago). If I could find it buried on the drive where ever it might be, that would be huge today.

Ok, not early in the sense of Bitcoin, but I only know 4 other people in my circle of friends who have setup a wallet and tried to use it.

Hang in there, when we bought our house, it took a few tries. We fell in love with one, and went to make an offer. The seller had just accepted another offer from another couple while we were standing in the house looking at it and talking about what we wanted to spend. We went back to looking, made another couple offers, and it all worked out. Don't give up if the first few are rejected, and don't just pay sticker price unless you can't live without it.

I am a notorious early adopter. I will take the hits and try stuff out just to see how it works, and see if I like it. It is fun to imagine what if Bitcoin really works in the long haul. Paying for a service, and no higher body other than me and the person I am paying are involved, simply under the mutual understanding and trust in something is kind of a cool feeling. I am not dumping my savings in by any means, but participating in something, however small the likely hood, that could completely change our global understanding of money is fun in a pioneering sort of way. It is also way cheeper than a one way ticket to colonize Mars.

I have a friend who is a early adopter and suggested I use Coinbase. It has some transaction fee's but it basically makes using bitcoin as easy Paypal. So far where I am there isn't anywhere to use it locally, but I may buy a few things online, or see if my balance will grow if the market spikes again.

I just setup a wallet and converted a little money to bitcoin just to try it out, and see what all of the fuss is about. Has anyone else tested the waters? What did you think?

I have used one once, but from what I remember there is a program you need to put on your laptop, then use it to configure the device.