It’s a blustery day today. Well…all week!

Hello there again, as I sit typing my new blog entry, the wind has started picking up here in Kansas City and it appears it’s going to be a “windy” and warm week!

It’s windy for Kansas…I remember when I lived on Maui it seemed like it was windy every day, but of course it’s all in how you look at things. Since that time in my life, I’ve learned to love the feel of the wind.

I like that it brings in new air, cleans out out the old. It blows the leaves away. It can clean the streets. Yes, there are some negatives to a windy day, but I’m a wind “fan” (no pun intended) and despite my hair getting a little messed up I don’t have a lot against it.

So if you’re in the Kansas City area like I am over the next few days be prepared for a city “cleansing”. Mother nature is bringing a little air from the south and will keep the wind tunnel on high for a few days. I think I’ll wait to ride my motorcycle until next weekend!

Speaking of Maui, and on a totally different subject: I’ve been invited to participate in the Oahu Marathon in December of this year. 26 miles, yikes. The catch is that I’ll be part of a three-man team wearing full firefighter bunker gear and oxygen tank, boots and face mask. It’s a demonstration and a commitment to all of those who lay their lives on the line to save ours. And it’s crazy 😉 Unfortunately I’ve already got a vacation planned for the same week so I’m going to have to pass this year…I’ll have to feel the Hawaii wind another time!

Have a good week, stay safe, take care, Ryan

The iPad Pro – will it be for you?

Hello friends, Apple recently announced the iPad Pro; and of course we will be offering repairs for it soon here on the Mission Repair website.

There’s a lot of talk about who and what this tablet was designed for. Specifically since of it’s high price tag, that it could replace a laptop for high-end executives that travel, read the news, email, watch movies and work within their proprietary vertical market software. Again these devices are about $950 on average and there won’t be one in every household (in my humble opinion).

Jason Perlow for Tech Broiler writes:

“But if the iPad Pro is the future of computing, particularly for executive task workers and for high-end data visualization, then we really need to think about capacity management in the cloud and how we may need to re-architect existing LOB apps originally designed for Client-Server, now being lifted and shifted to IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) to minimize development, to scale as PaaS (Platform as a Service) in massively multi-tenant, public cloud environments.

Because without the Cloud, the iPad Pro is just a very expensive executive paperweight.”

I think he’s got some validity there, but even though I don’t imagine these devices selling like the iPad Mini where I see them in the hands of children, I do think that the consumer group that just simply likes a big screen will wait in line to have the next big thing. Is it for me? I don’t think so.

My son has the iPhone 6 Plus, and it’s a little too much. I still remember loving my iPhone 4S; but I’ve settled into my iPhone 6. Size does matter in the electronics world, and I think I’ll stick with my iPad 4 for a while. At least until I become a big important business executive that is!

Take care, Ryan

The KC 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb was a huge success – and we were there!

Hello there friends,

It’s a cool Monday morning here in Kansas City and as I’m getting around for the day, I’ve been reflecting on this last weekend’s events. Last week there was a little news about this event that hit the National press, but due to the proactive work of law enforcement the issue was thwarted:

The show went on.

We sponsored the 2015 KC 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb – specifically the celebration dinner the night before – called the “Brotherhood Bash”. It’s a time for the firemen to get together and bond before the next morning where they climb 110 stories in full firefighter gear. It’s impressive.

Here’s Lennie at the event having a great time; and the group of us had some good laughs, met some great people, ate, drank, and participated in the raffle for a lot of goodies at the end of the night.

During the event’s festivities, Dave Bova (the Event coordinator, and good friend of mine) unveiled this mural:

It’s the first of it’s kind in existence, but probably not the last. It’s got a picture of every fallen firefighter (all 343 of them) that was in New York on that fateful day back on September 11, 2001. This event is to honor those that made the ultimate sacrifice and to promise to “never forget”.

It’s a touching way to spend a weekend and as I hugged my family it brought some sense of gratefulness and pride to be a part of this celebration. It’s a memorial for a tragic day, but the “togetherness” makes things better. We will be back next year and we hope you get it on your calendars now so you can witness the power of the “brotherhood”. It’s worth the time, trust me.

Take care, have a great Monday. Mine is starting off great!

Ryan